I put too much on my plate this fall. It’s as simple as that.

And I’m not – in any way – a super multitasker.

So the last few weeks – with my new teaching responsibilities for Highlands Latin, my new leadership/teaching responsibilities for Boys’ Brigade, my leadership/organizational/teaching responsibilities for our church’s Kids’ Missions Conference, and my continuing homeschooling tasks all vying for my limited brain capacity – have been pretty stressful. Throw into the mix several serious illnesses in my extended family and other various “normal” responsibilities and….

Yikes. My OCD personality hangs on to these many thoughts constantly, juggling them (poorly), and that type of stress doesn’t necessarily spill out of me in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc.

But I realized something last week that served as a reminder and challenge: my temptation, when faced with these tasks – especially those where I am teaching others – is to just accomplish the “job.” Get the missionaries lined up. Get the lesson written. Plug a Bible verse into this theme and an acceptable sounding moral into this time slot and this person here and that idea there and GET IT DONE.

If I’m just “getting it done” then I might as well stop. Not literally, of course (the tasks do have to be completed), but spiritually speaking. My goal is not to check the boxes. That’s not why I signed up for these things in the first place. I signed up for them because the Lord presented me with opportunities that lined up with what He’s taught me about my skills/gifts and those are ways in which I can serve and glorify Him.

That’s why I’m busy, and while I may also be learning about the wisdom of accepting so many simultaneous tasks down the road, I need to keep the purpose for this month’s tasks before me and do them well. For the right reasons, so that the benefits will not be limited to bare accomplishment, but to glorifying God and enjoying Him forever.

(NOTE: In case this sounds like I’ve actually mastered this lesson, I haven’t. It’s a work in progress – just ask my wife – but, importantly, it IS a work and it is in progress!)